Triumph Engineering Company Ltd.
Buried amongst a wad of old papers that relate to a garage owner/motor engineer active in the 1950s, is a slim folder for a Triumph T100 Tiger motorcycle, registration HTD 730. In the folder are notes for the expenditure that he had to put into the T100, including a few paid invoices. Two were issued by Chapman's of Duke Street in Norwich, while the other - featured below - was issued by the Triumph factory itself at the Meriden Works, Allesley, Coventry, for parts ordered in June 1952. The items needed were camshafts, tappets, bushes, and two pistons.
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The Triumph motorcycle's HTD (Lancashire-issued) registration series first saw light of day in 1947, confirming - as does the purchase receipt - that the Triumph was first registered in that year. A gummed label on the invoice points out to the purchaser that they should really be ordering their parts via a local dealer, rather than directly from the factory, although judging by all the paperwork I have here, I think Mr G.I. Bidewell, of 7 Cambridge Street, Norwich, Norfolk, was indeed in the motor trade, to a greater or lesser extent, although this address was - and remains today - very much residential.
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Also in the file is the handwritten receipt given to Mr Bidewell on his purchase of the '47 Tiger. In total, 120 GBP was paid for it. This was in May of 1952, was it bought knowing that the 500cc engine needed a complete overhaul, or did problems only surface after he rode away on his newly-purchased machine I wonder? Perhaps the only way to answer that question, is to track down a motorcycling magazine of the era and compare the prices of bikes advertised in it, with the price that Mr Bidewell paid for his, to establish whether his was an unusually-cheap purchase.
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Further items of memorabilia relating to cars and motorcycles that passed through this engineer's hands in the 1950s, will be added in.
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Return to the Motor Collectables section to find many more pages relating to classic vehicles in some way.
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